Goodbye BND? hello WBD :-)

After a number of near misses, I finally caught up with the Bottlenose Dolphins on Thursday 5th June, and tracked their movement down the coast from Newbiggin to St Mary's Island.  I lost them at that point, as they headed across Whitley Bay.  They seem to have moved quickly south, and were reported from Marsden Rock...unfortunately as a pod of Minke Whales...subsequently 'corrected' to a pod of Pilot Whales :-)  The following day I was guiding for NEWT and took my clients to see the BND as they were just off Church Point.  The dolphins then relocated (again) to the Farne Islands, and the latest sighting report we have was as they travelled north of the islands on Monday 9th June.

Overlapping with the BND were the first few reports of White-beaked Dolphin around the south Northumberland coast; 11 heading N at St Mary's Island at 05:00 on Sunday 1st June (S. Lowe), two off Alnmouth on Tuesday 10th (via S. Wales), 40 off the River Tyne on Thursday 12th (A. Bunney/ORCA) and ~100 off the Tyne on the weekend of 14th/15th (ORCA).

Bottlenose Dolphins in North East England 2014

Back in 2010, the first North East Cetacean Project report identified May as the best month to see Bottlenose Dolphins in North East England.  In 2012 we finally had evidence that they move south past our coast in October, and 2013 backed that up.  This year, we're seeing something unprecedented...

In late March I received a report of White-beaked Dolphins off the mouth of the River Tyne.  Not out of the question, but quite early in the year for them to be close inshore.  I managed to track down some images that were taken of the dolphins, and reidentified them as Bottlenose Dolphins.  Again, slightly early, but no doubt about the ID.  Since then there have been almost daily reports (including more that have been misidentified as White-beaked Dolphin), covering an area of the east coast from St Abb's Head in the North to Whitby and Scarborough in the south.  The largest group reported so far is of 50 animals, and it seems likely that we have 50+ animals ranging up and down the coast in search of food.

Discussion with colleagues in Scotland, and study of images of BND from North East England in the last two months, indicates that the animals currently present down here are from the Moray/Tay/Forth populations and have been impacted by limited food supply in their 'expected' location.  If the distance they seem to be covering in our area is also due to not finding a suitable food source here, then this is quite worrying.  Some people consider their occurrence off the north east coast to be an exciting development, and few people wouldn't enjoy watching a pod of dolphins, but an informed understanding of the species' ecology and distribution will have many conservationists concerned about what has driven this unprecedented event, and what the potential consequences for Bottlenose Dolphin and the two small cetaceans that are regular off North East England (Harbour Porpoise and White-beaked Dolphin) could be.

If you have any images of Bottlenose Dolphin taken anywhere on the east coast of England in the last two months, we'd really appreciate the opportunity to compare them with the existing BND catalogues for other areas so that we can identify exactly which animals are present here, and where they are expected to be at this time.  Images can be emailed (original, unedited files as downloaded from your camera please) to martin.kitching@marine-life.org.uk and we'll acknowledge you as a contributor when we publish our findings about this unusual occurrence.

White-beaked Dolphins 26/06/2013

2 White-beaked Dolphins were seen in Newbiggin Bay, Northumberland, yesterday evening (A. Priest)

Bottlenose Dolphins 09/11/2012

A pod of 20+ Bottlenose Dolphins are still present in the Bamburgh/Seahouses area.  During the major movement of this species along the Northumberland coast on October 21st, a pod of this size was lingering off Holy Island late afternoon, at the same time as 100+ were passing Newbiggin by the Sea and heading south.  Several reports since then suggest this may be the same group.

Bottlenose Dolphins 21/10/2012

A remarkable series of reports for Sunday 21st October, with a pod of well over 100 Bottlenose Dolphins traveling slowly south along the Northumberland coast from Cocklawburn in the north to Newbiggin by the Sea in southeast Northumberland (latest report received by the North East Cetacean Project at 16:30).

White-beaked Dolphins

July is always a good month to see White-beaked Dolphins in north east England, and this year is no exception.

The first reports came in the last few days of June, and during the last week they've been seen at Newbiggin, Druridge Bay, Blyth, Tynemouth, Lizard Point and Sunderland.

At least ten individual animals were photographed during a transect survey on the PV St Oswald off Northumberland yesterday.

If you see any of these stunning creatures (or any other whales, dolphins or porpoises) anywhere on the east coast from Northumberland-Essex can you submit your sighting to the North East Cetacean Project database please?  It's easy to do - just visit http://www.northeastcetaceans.org.uk/ and click on 'Submit a Sighting'.  The data gathered will add to the knowledge of the movements and distribution of our cetaceans and will support efforts to conserve the marine environment.

Sightings May 2012

Plenty of Harbour Porpoise sightings throughout the month with up to 5 from the shore at Scarborough (S. Baines)

6 Bottlenose Dolphins (including a very small calf) S past Snab Point on 8th (M.Kitching/Northern Experience Wildlife Tours)

Sighting of the month though, was a large whale 1.5nm E of Cresswell, initially identified as a Humpback Whale, and later reidentified as a Sperm Whale, during a North East Cetacean Project transect survey on PV St Oswald on 31st (R.Milor/NECP).

Northeast Cetacean Project Transect Survey 05/07/2011

Plenty of swell and a strengthening southeasterly combined to make surveying impossible this afternoon (waves crashing over the boat every few minutes...) but the morning produced the sort of sightings we dream of;

Minke Whale 1 off Alnmouth

White-beaked Dolphin 6 bow-riding for 12mins from 2mi off Druridge Pools to a point 1.8mi E of Coquet Island

White-beaked Dolphins 01/07/2011

A rush of sightings, possibly all relating to the same pod;

01/07/2011 White-beaked Dolphin 4 breaching off Lynemouth Bay 13:50-14:00 (Northern Experience Wildlife Tours)

01/07/2011 White-beaked Dolphin 8-10 Church Point, Newbiggin 14:38 (A Priest)

01/07/2011 White-beaked Dolphin 10+ off Seaton Sluice for 2hrs this evening (B Dack)

Recent sightings

Some impressive numbers of Harbour Porpoise, and the continuation of the Northeast Cetacean Project transect surveys (with many thanks to the Northumberland Sea Fisheries Committee - having a project partner with a patrol boat is a real bonus!).

22/02/2011
Northeast Cetacean Project Transect Survey (M. Kitching/R. Milor/NSFC St Oswald)
21 Harbour Porpoise
2 poss. Minke Whale

20/03/2011
Whitburn obs. (P. Collins via A. Tait)
1 Minke Whale

25/03/2011
Northeast Cetacean Project Transect Survey (M. Kitching/NSFC St Oswald)
28 Harbour Porpoise
1 Minke Whale
1 White-beaked Dolphin

26/03/2011
Sarah JFK (A. Skinner)
6-7 Harbour Porpoise 4mi E of the Tyne

Dolphins 04/08/2010

4-5 Bottlenose Dolphins S past Newbiggin at 11:55, then heading N towards Church Point at 13:10 (A. Priest)

20-40 Bottlenose Dolphins 4 miles E of St Mary's Island at 11:46 (A. Skinner)

All good data for the Northeast Cetacean project. Now, we just need something similar on the Northern Experience Wildlife Tours pelagic this Friday :-)

Exciting times ahead

2 large dolphin sp reported past South Shields yesterday (P. Collins)and a belated report, to the Northeast Cetacean Project, of 200 White-beaked Dolphins off Eyemouth in June. Angling charter boats are reporting increasing numbers of WBD so we could be in for a better year than the rather sparse 2008 and 2009.

Request for cetacean sightings

As part of the Northeast Cetacean Project (a partnership involving Marinelife, Natural England, NTBC and Northern Experience Wildlife Tours) we are compiling a database of cetacean sightings for northeast England.

Northumberland and Tyneside Bird Club and Durham Bird Club members, along with Marinelife volunteers, are involved in our ongoing seabird/cetacean surveys, but we are keen to extend our cetacean database as far back as 2003 (or even earlier if significant records can be unearthed).

Whilst compiling the database it has been noticeable that there seem to be a lot of cetacean sightings that are written in notebooks but not published anywhere. If you do have sightings of any cetaceans then we would be grateful if you would submit them for inclusion in our database. We're including tideline strandings/corpses in the database so please send records of those if you have any.The key data are; Date, Species, Number, Location, Observer. Less important, but still of interest if you have this level of detail are Time, Behaviour, Direction of Travel.

Please send records to Northeast Cetacean Project, 18 Frances Ville, Scotland Gate, Northumberland, NE62 5ST or e-mail martin.kitching1'at'btopenworld.com

Martin Kitching
Lead Surveyor, Northeast Cetacean Project